Placing a Trade
A trade reaches your Dashboard in one of three ways: you run a template, you record a manual position you opened elsewhere, or you let a strategy open one for you. This article covers all three and the one thing to check before any of them.
Before you place a trade
VolNinja is always in one of two trading modes, shown by the Paper / LIVE switch at the top of the screen. Both send real orders to Interactive Brokers — the difference is which account they reach. Paper routes to your IBKR paper-trading account (no real money, but real order handling on IBKR's side). LIVE routes to your real IBKR account, with a red REAL MONEY badge next to the switch. Switching modes always asks you to confirm.
The switch decides where a trade you place lands: when you run a template from the app, it executes in whichever mode the switch is showing right now — so glance at it before you act.
Warning
In LIVE mode every trade uses real money in your broker account. Confirm the mode before you place anything, and never submit test orders while you are in live mode. New to this? Start in Paper and read Paper vs live — trading safely.
Run a template
A template is a reusable blueprint for a trade — its legs, how strikes are chosen, and the management rules that come with it. Running one is the fastest way to open a position, because everything is decided in advance. (Building templates is covered in Templates overview.)
The quickest path is the Quick Execute card on the Dashboard, which holds your favorite templates as one-click buttons.
With Live preview on, each button shows the template's legs and the current net bid / mid / ask, so you can see what you'd pay or collect before committing. Selecting a template opens an Execute Template dialog listing its legs and a Multiplier — leave it at 1, or raise it to scale every leg's quantity up (a multiplier of 3 opens three times the size). Choose Execute and an Executing Template window tracks the order until it fills.
Tip
Only favorite templates appear in Quick Execute. Star a template on the Templates page to add it here — and you can run any template directly from that page with its ▶ button.
Record a manual position
If you opened a position somewhere else — another device, or by hand at your broker — you can bring it into VolNinja so it's tracked alongside everything else. Choose Add Manual (the Add Position button on the Dashboard) to open the Add Manual Position sheet.
You can either turn on Use Template and pick a template — so the position inherits that template's management rules — or leave it off and enter the legs yourself. Set the Underlying, Root, Expiry Date, and Quantity, then for each leg its Type (Put/Call), Action (Buy/Sell), Strike, Quantity, Entry Price, and Commission. Add an optional entry underlying price and notes, then Create Position.
Important
Adding a manual position only records a trade you already made — it does not place any order at your broker. If you add a position without a template, it's unmanaged: VolNinja won't automatically close it, so you'll need to manage it yourself. See Position rules to attach automation afterward.
Let a strategy trade for you
A strategy watches the market and opens (and closes) positions on its own, across the templates you give it — no clicking required. Running strategies appear in the Strategies card on the Dashboard, and any position a strategy opens shows up in your list just like one you placed by hand. Setting one up is covered in Running a strategy and Strategies overview.
After the order
However a trade is placed, the result is the same: it appears in your positions list on the Dashboard, updating live. A template or strategy order shows its progress while it works and lands as a position once filled. From there you can watch it, inspect it, or close it:
- Positions overview — read your positions at a glance.
- Position details — inspect legs, Greeks, and P&L.
- Opening & closing positions — close, split, expire, or bulk-close.